Armed with 159 separate contributions — including maxed out donations from Dan Gilman and Bill Peduto’s election committee — Erika Strassburger took a commanding lead in fundraising in Pittsburgh’s March 6 special election by raking just over $91,241 in January, according to city campaign finance reports.

The election for city council’s District 8, which includes a central chunk of the affluent East End, is to replace former city councilman Gilman after he resigned to become Mayor Peduto’s new chief of staff in early January.

With just a week until the deadline for the General Assembly to submit a new congressional map to Gov. Tom Wolf as laid out in a January 22, 2018, Pennsylvania Supreme Court order, the legal drama surrounding the case and resultant appeals grew Friday as Republican leaders who are defendants in the case filed legal documents with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court requesting Justice David Wecht recuse himself from the case and his participation in the case invalidated due to prior-expressed bias against partisan gerrymandering.

The Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children's CEO, Joan Benso, sits down with the podcast to talk about a report they recently issued related to pre-K funding, especially as it relates to the state budget.